Frustrated and about to give up...

[Guest]

So far there's one thing I haven't seen anyone mention. Have you checked to see if your video card fan is operating? Have you tried running your computer with the case off and a floor fan blowing into it? If your video card (or anything else) is getting too hot and causing your computer to lockup, that should narrow the problem down quite a bit if the lockups stop. You mentioned upgrading from one computer to another... I just want to make sure of one thing. You didn't just swap the old hard drive out of the old computer and stick it in the new computer, did you? That's a mistake I used to see people do. I even did it once, myself. While doing that might (or might not) work, you are probably going to encounter numerous problems if you do.Which brings me to my final thoughts...Have you tried formatting your hard drive and putting a fresh OS on it? Then ONLY install the latest drivers and FS2002 and check to see if you still get the crashes. I wouldn't try this until you've already ruled out the overheating possibilities as stated above. And as others have mentioned, you should really think about ditching Windows ME. Get either Windows XP or Windows 2000 (my preference) and don't look back!

[Guest]

Have you got networking installed? If so, are you connected during your game play? One of the "nicer" things about ME is that it periodically goes off and does a bunch of network broadcasts (looking for other hosts on the network.)Try this. If you are not using any networking, make sure that the IPX/NetBEUI protocol is not installed. That way, it wont be looking to see if any other hosts came online. If you dont have IPX loaded, but you are using TCP, make sure you are not connected. At a command prompt type "net stop tcp/ip" (I think thats it). This will stop networking but wont affect FS. Then try your game again.I've seen these types of probs before, and its almost always been network issues.Hope this helpsDave T

[Guest]

1) I've heard other folks posting that Nvidia driver 28.32 is the most stable of all of them, it certainly is for me. I cannot get some sims to even run 5 minutes with any of a couple dozen other driver versions, but zip zero nada problemo with 28.32.2) Several messages way back on the FS2002 boards suggested that turning of AGP hardware acceleration in the Display tab of DXDIAG will give higher framerates, better textures, and fewer lockups. DXDIAG is in C:/Program Files/DirectX/Setup.3) Soundcard is a likely culprit, however. == WHK ==

[Vulcan 14]

Rob,That really is bad news.To give you hope I have run FS2k FS2k2 on various AMD/Abit combinations without any lockups, nor have I had to resort to 'black magic' to cure any SoundBlaster problems so it is possible - at least with Win98SE.A doubt that a GF4 will cure your problems, I have run FS2k2 with a GF2MX200 & 400 and only recently upgraded to a GF3Ti200, none of them gace me lock-ups.I throw a couple of additional thoughts in, although I strongly suspect WinME although you don't say what OS was on the 'old' system.Get hold of 'dxcplv8.zip' (can't remember where I got my copy from).Install it and click on the icon in Control Panel, go to the sound page and you will probably find a 'debug' slider set, set the slider all the way to the left.Wisdom for FS2k, is to disable all shadowing in your BIOS, a setting I still use for FS2k2.One last thought although highly unlikely, have you checked to make sure it isn't a virus?Hope you get it sorted soon 'cos it will work.Rgds

[Guest]

I tried the fan-on-floor trick (with the cover off, I'm not that stupid). No luck. I did not bring the old HD over. The old OS was Win98SE, but the RAM and cpu were the most likely suspects. Networking is installed in our home office and I'm anxious to see what happens with that disabled. Interesting tip.It's comforting to know people have used the Abit/AMD combination because changing my motherboard would be a drag.WinME isn't doing much for me...I may reformat and go back to Win98SE, switch to 28.32 drivers and see where I am. While that may work, I'm not very hopeful because I installed FS2002 first thing after booting the new machine about a month ago. I certainly wasn't using the best video drivers at the time, but still got lockups.The funny thing is it always seems one tweak, software download and install away. Like the lockups will go away with this driver, or that BIOS setting. Tantalizing.

[Guest]

...and I'm assuming there's a simple "net(working) start" command? That would help, if you don't mind.For such a common (having been discussed to death) problem (and a newbie one) I appreciate everyones suggestions. Thanks.

[Guest]

Happend to have the same probs. Turned out to be a utility called scroll++ giving problems. If you have any mouse utility installed or actief turn it off. In fact, your message indicate the lock-ups happens when you do someting with the mouse (except for the wheather lock-up). You also wrote:"And it seemed to run alright with nothing else loaded...no win.ini, no system.ini, but why should I have to do that?"So reading this correct there are no problems without those loaded?Then it must be a conflict somewhere IMO.Have you tried "ctrl alt del" onces and remove anything except explorer and systray?Good luck,Ronald

[Guest]

I have used End-it-All and that didn't seem to help. Thanks.

[John_Cillis 2,406]

End-it-all won't catch everything, although your first post shows that you already checked VXD's, so it sounds like you have a good handle on the troubleshooting part. The disabling of AGP texturing in DX is a good tip--and also try turning off H/W T&L within FS2002 if that doesn't work. Sometimes I also have to wonder if a bad chip on the graphics card itself is the cause of some of the lockups.... I can't recall if you've tried another graphics card or not....

[Guest]

>I really find it hard to believe that ANYONE has this sim >running without lockups. Briefly: I had lockup problems and >got a brand new computer: AMD 1400 Thunderbird using a >GeForce3 64, 256 RAM. I still had the same problems. Lockups >while moving windows, lockups adjusting the radio stack, >lockups in weather. I have a very similar system to yours. My setup includes an Abit KG7-RAID motherboard with 512 megs of Pc2100 DDR memory and a GF3 Ti-200 video card, along with a Creative Audigy soundcard. I also run FS2002 with a CH Flight Sim USB yoke.Are you using any other USB devices, such as a mouse, on your system? There are some documented problems with the Via chipset on the KG7 board, primarily in its ability to handle multiple USB devices. It appears it can become overwhelmed by an intensive device, such as a flight yoke, leading to problems.I ran into problems using my yoke and mouse at the same time. The mouse would continue to work, but the yoke lost its ability to respond.I was able to solve the problem by using the PS/2 port adapter that came with my Logitech optical mouse and plugging it into the PS/2 port on my computer, an Athlon XP 1900+ machine. The conflicts I was having went away and everything now works fine.So if you're using a USB mouse along with FS2002 you might try a PS/2 one and see if it helps any. Good luck, and keep us posted.

[Guest]

yep, "net start tcp/ip" - actually the reason I suggested it was so that you could try and it and see if the problem (generally) lay in the area of networking. If after you stop the network, the problem goes away, you've narrowed down the search. When you reboot the machine, the network will come back up again, using "net stop" only applied to the current session, so nothing permanent has been changed.Dave